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Current U.S. guidelines for cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) recommend a compression rate of at least 100 per minute. In a multisite North American observational study, researchers measured chest compression rates used by emergency medical technicians and evaluated the association between compression rate and return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) and survival to hospital discharge. Patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest were enrolled between 2005 and 2007, when the recommended compression rate was “about 100” per minute.
Compressions were measured within the first five minutes of CPR either by an accelerometer placed on the chest or the change in impedance recorded by external defibrillator pads. Two rates were calculated: (1) th…